Over 1 million travel in US for Thanksgiving despite surge in COVID-19 cases

More than one million people travelled in the US ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the Transportation Security Administration despite the rise in the cases of coronavirus across the nation, with single-day spike of COVID-19 infections hitting new records. 

The Transportation Security Administration reported that 1,019,836 passengers went through the TSA checkpoints in America on Friday. This comes as the cases of COVID-19 crossed 12 million in the US on Saturday, with single-day spike of infections nearing 200,000.

The numbers have topped 1 million the second time during the pandemic, as earlier the US saw high passenger volume at the end of the long Columbus Day weekend. 

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According to the TSA, 984,369 passengers travelled across the US on Saturday, the third-most since the pandemic. Over 1 million people used to routinely travel in the US till March 16, according to the TSA. The numbers dropped from the following day, after March 17. 

The coronavirus has killed more than 255,000 people in the US, which is the worst-hit nation globally by the COVID-19 pandemic.